XII Satan’s Agent — John A. Murrell
One of the many buried treasures of the Sabine strip is claimed to belong to John A. Murrell, who possessed a brilliant mind which he used to break all the Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. He was the type of man who could recite to another the entire books of the Old and New Testaments then shoot him down in cold blood.
John A. Murrell was born about the year 1800 in Williams County, Tennessee. His father was a Methodist Minister and his mother, a mountain woman, who at that time operated a wayside tavern. Through the teachings of his father he learned the Gospel and through the teachings of his mother he learned to steal. Murrell, well equipped with the knowledge of the good and the bad often passed as a preacher. In this guise he made his appearance in the Neutral Strip.
About the year 1825 Murrell went about preaching the Gospel and at the same time was organizing a band of outlaws. At Los Adais which was now called Spanish Town, at Twenty Mile House or Midway Station near Fort Jesup, in the hidden caves near Kisatchie, he established his headquarters and from these places he ranged out of the Strip to preach to the more populated communities.
Murrell could mimic the voices of many people and was an excellent actor. In each community where he preached he adapted their tone of voice and mannerisms. One of his favorite gospels was the one he called “Directions”. As he addressed his audience he may have been standing in the pulpit of a church, or atop a stump or standing in the bed of a wagon, wherever a crowd gathered Murrell felt that he should preach to them.
“Directions,” he would shout, “always when one begins a journey, he has a destination. The road to this destination is similar to the Road of Life, often along this road one has to inquire about directions, and it is so through the Journey of Life, one must follow directions laid down by the Church and the Ministers, they are the sign posts that point the way. Quite often a man while traveling this road, decides to take a short cut, instead of following the Good Book as laid down by the Church, these short cuts become his mis-deeds or his sins.
We shall assume that this Bible is the Book of Judgment and in it will be the names of every living person on the face of the earth. By each name there are two columns, one for his assets or his good deeds of life and the other column for his mis-deeds, which we shall call his de-sets.”
From here on Murrell becomes the actor in what he called, The Drama at the Gates of Heaven.
“Batiste had made the journey through life and was knocking on the Gates of Heaven, a voice from within asks, who knocks? Batiste answers and gives his full name. The voice is that of St. Peter who looks up Batiste’s record of life in the Book of Judgment. Then St. Peter explains to Batiste, we take out the pages which contain your assets and place them on one side of the scales of justice and on the other side we place the pages of your de-sets. If your assets out-weigh your de-sets, then naturally you can come in, as we place your assets and de-sets upon the scales we will review them.”
(Now Murrell becomes the comic for the benefit of his audience). “Right here Batiste on May 25, you done de-setted enough to carry over on the next three pages. Boy, you was really de-setting that day.
Here, we see your Pastor found you hunting on Sunday and you had a nice bag of squirrels, the Pastor spoke to you about it and you gave the excuse that you had your days mixed up. Again he caught you fishing on Sunday and a nice bunch you had too, you gave the excuse that you had your days mixed up again.
Now, if you had given the Pastor some of those squirrels or fish, then those de-sets of that day would have turned into assets. But all along the Road of Life you gave the excuse that you had your days mixed up. ‘Now,’ said St. Peter, as he looked at the scales, ‘because you had your days mixed up you now have your directions mixed up. You all done come the wrong way’, and he shut the door in Batiste’s face. Batiste begged for another chance but this could not be, as you know you can only travel the Road of Life once.”
Along the Neutral Strip the inhabitants catered only to hard money, that is gold and silver coins, and Murrell asked that fees for his service be paid in coin.
Murrell would place a set of balancing scales where everyone could see, on one side he placed the Bible, then he said, “this Bible will represent the Book of Judgment and I place it on this side of the scales, it will represent your mis-deeds or de-sets. Now, we are all going to stay here until you people give enough to tip these scales to the asset side.” While the collections were being made, Murrell would be expounding of the good things he intended doing with the money, he even had a few henchmen in the audience to begin the contributions and to urge the others to do the same.
Murrell becomes another legend of Los Adais and of his hidden treasures, it is believed that he had many hidden treasures which he called large banks and small banks.
No one is certain how Murrell’s death came about. Murrell’s gold and silver, and he must have had much of it, with nearly a decade of preaching, lying, robbing and murdering in the strip, could have been the cause.